Undertaking PEFA Assessments

This five-day professional development workshop provides a hands-on approach to carrying out Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessments. This specialized workshop has been designed principally for Government officials who wish to participate in PEFA assessments and Consultants wishing to carry out or review PEFA Assessments. It has been designed to better equip the participant to effectively plan their PEFA assignments and understand how to extract reliable PFM performance measures given the constraints of the PEFA methodology, the limited time in the field, and incomplete access to accurate and reliable Public Finance Management data.

Upcoming training workshop

Course name:

Undertaking PEFA Assessments

Dates:

to be scheduled

Duration:

5 days

Venue:

Accra, Ghana

Price:

2300 US$

Course evaluation

Description

Undertaking PEFA Assessments takes participants through the techniques for quickly mapping the PEFA performance measure indices to the appropriate institutions in a given country, and establishing triangulation maps for assessing the quality and reliability of data. It examines approaches for surveying the key features of the Public Finance Management legal and regulatory framework. It outlines approaches for explaining the purpose of a PEFA assessment to government and donor officials to ensure that the right people are met and furthermore in meetings are prepared to respond to questions. The course introduces effective interview techniques through presentations as well as simulated interview sessions. This course develops in-depth techniques for assessing and analyzing data received on all 31 PEFA indicators and identifies a number of traps to avoid. Further, it provides guidance on key features to review in order to assess the effectiveness of the institutional arrangements in place to manage a PFM reform program. It also reviews the basic elements that are a prerequisite to successful PFM reform.

The course introduces very powerful methods for performing internal consistency checks on the ratings ascribed that can serve as a very useful basis for identifying errors in the assessment. It also identifies places where inaccurate or unreliable data has been employed to arrive at a particular rating and so may require additional data or the use of other sources. The limits and limitations of the PEFA methodology are also explored to ensure that any biases introduced into the assessment may be understood and adequately addressed within the narrative.

The course concludes with techniques for the preparation of the PEFA report with emphasis on the preparation of the Summary Assessment.

Objective

The principal professional workshop objective is to provide participants with the tools and techniques to effectively carry out a PEFA Assessment; and to be able to translate the findings into an accurate set of PEFA indicator scores with a fully effective accompanying narrative. Further it provides a basis to write effective PEFA Reports.

Audience

The target audience is Government officials and Consultants who intend to carry out PEFA Assessments or review PEFA Reports.

Pre-requisites

The pre-requisites for this course are experience with Public Finance Management and familiarity with the PEFA Assessment tool. We recommend participants attend courses such as idilmat´s Foundations of Public Finance Management (P1-PFM-001) or Elements of Public Finance Management: A Developing Country Perspective (P1-PFM-003) and Introduction to the PEFA Methodology (P2-PFM-007).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course participants will:

• Be equipped with practical methods for mapping the PEFA Performance Measurement Framework to a country’s institutional framework to serve as a basis for effective engagement with a country on the assessment of its PFM systems;

• Be equipped with techniques to identify the key features of the Public Finance Management legal and regulatory framework;

• Be able to plan effectively actual field interviews to complete a PEFA Assessment;

• Learn effective interview techniques and triangulation methods for assuring an accurate understanding of PFM systems and procedures, and obtaining fair and balanced results in the assessment of the PEFA indicators;

• Appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the Performance Measurement Framework tool and so avoid an over simplistic extrapolation of indicator scorings to a measure of the status of PFM activities in a given country;

Ron Quist

Principal instructor

Experience:Ron Quist is from Ghana has vast experience in Public Finance Management, Project Finance, Money Markets, Energy Systems, and System Design developed over more than 30 years applied to both the public and private sectors across four continents.

Jérôme Dendura

Instructor

Experience:Jérôme Dendura from France is an expert in public finance management covering both the Francophone and Anglophone systems. His principal focus is in the areas of public procurement and audit.

Participant testimonials

The training was conducted professionally and well presented with excellent mix of theory and practical demonstration and examples. The Instructions demonstrated very good grasp of knowledge of the PEFA tool. The training materials are spot on.

Thank the IDILMAT staff for their presentations during the workshop. Hope they keep in touch with participants for further clarity on issues of complex nature.

The training was unique except that the period was short.

I must commend IDILMAT Institution for sending the two brilliant Facilitators.

This course was very helpful in understanding some of Liberia's short-comings in its quest to a sound PFM Reform Process.

I actually got the real value of PEFA and I think that it is applicable to Liberia.

Thank you for an excellent course! I am very impressed with the content and delivery. The professionalism of Idilmat is evident and service was great. I would recommend this course to others and look forward to future courses.

Very rewarding. Afforded us the knowlegde of linking all the elements of PFM. Will surely recommend to other fellow PFM practitioners.

Originally, I signed up for a course on undertaking a PEFA assessment, but I got more than anticipated; I got drilled through the entire PFM. It was a great experience